Pulsed AC or variable polarity gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) may be used to weld aluminum when appearance is important. The modulation of current in the process serves to alternately expand and cool the puddle, thus creating a series of ridges in the weld bead, sometimes called a “stacked dimes” appearance. To speed up the process, beyond the speed of a GTAW process, GMAW has often been used, but with difficulty in achieving a “stacked dime” weld appearance. To achieve a similar “stacked dime” weld appearance via GMAW welding instead of GTAW welding, the operator can shuffle the torch, forward/backward in the joint. While shuffling can result in a desirable stacked dime appearance, it requires the operator to manipulate the torch rapidly, resulting in a process that is not as fast as a straight progression and that produces inconsistent results. Another approach to achieve the “stacked dime” appearance with GMAW is the modulation of a pulsed waveform's parameters to achieve high energy and low energy portions of the weld cycle. The high energy portion delivers high heat to the weld puddle/pool, whereas the low energy portion delivers relatively low heat to the weld puddle. A high energy portion of a weld cycle can expand the weld puddle size, whereas a low energy portion of a weld cycle can allow the puddle to cool and shrink, creating the ridges associated with the “stacked dime” appearance. Although the method works, in order to achieve the desired bead appearance, significant differences in pulse parameters are required, often resulting in spattering in the high energy segment and stubbing in the low energy segment. Still another approach is to synergistically modulate the wire feed speed to modulate the heat and achieve the desired “stacked dime” appearance. Modulation of the wire feed speed (with associated pulse parameters) may be effective and may achieve the desired bead shape, but requires a slowdown in travel speed because the resulting deposit rate is significantly slowed by the low energy portion. Thus, there is a need for a process that delivers an attractive “stacked dime” bead shape appearance and is achieved at a speed similar to the steady state GMAW process.